THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Karl Rove, the former senior adviser to George W Bush, has cast serious doubt on Sarah Palin's viability as a White House candidate, questioning if the American people thought she had the "gravitas" for the "most demanding job in the world".Expressing the strongest public reservations about the conservative star made by any senior Republican figure, Mr Rove said it was unlikely that voters would regard someone starring in a reality show as presidential material.
In two weeks the former governor of Alaska launches a cable television series exploring her home state's wilderness.
"With all due candour, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office'," said Mr Rove, who remains a considerable force on the US political scene.
He added that the promotional clip for "Sarah Palin's Alaska" could be especially detrimental to any political campaign. It features the mother of five in the great outdoors saying "I would rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office" [sic].
Mr Rove also implied that Mrs Palin lacked the stomach for the rigours of a presidential primary campaign, which will begin early next year ahead of the first polls in early 2012.
Asked if Mrs Palin, 46, who is among the front-runners for the next Republican nomination, would be a wise choice if the party wanted to seize the White House from Mr Obama, he told the [sic] Daily Telegraph: "You can make a plausible case for any of them on paper, but it is not going to be paper in 2011. It's going to be blood, it's going to be sweat and tears and it's going to be hard effort," said Mr Rove. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, October 27, 2010
